Tony's Canon: An overview of the Bloodverse

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Here there be spoilers

Tanya Huff's Bloodverse consists of five books in the "Blood" series and three in the spinoff "Smoke" series. There is also a TV show based on the Blood books, but I'm using the book canon since Tony is not in the show. (Though I will snag icons from the show if I do a guest appearance and/or parents weekend with the show characters.)

The Blood books star Vicki "Victory" Nelson, a former cop who left the force when she was diagnosed with a disease which caused her to lose her night sight and will eventually leave her blind. When the story begins, she works as a private detective in Toronto. While investigating a series of murders, she meets Henry Fitzroy. Henry, as she discovers, is the bastard son of Henry VIII. He was turned into a vampire at the age of 17. He currently looks about 23, since in this 'verse, vampires age gradually. (They do not, however, sparkle.)

At the end of the first book, Vicki recruits Tony to donate blood to Henry after he's badly injured. She's already given as much as she safely can, but she trusts Tony and he's willing. Henry and Tony develop a relationship featuring blood, sex and friendship. (More on Tony and Henry in About Tony.)

Meeting Henry and finding out he's a vampire introduces Vicki to a whole world of supernatural elements. He refers a few clients to her (such as a family of werewolves) because he knows she believes and can be trusted to keep secrets. There's also a whole love triangle thing with Henry, Vicki and the human cop (and skeptic) Mike Celluci.

At the end of the fourth book, "Blood Pact", Vicki is mortally wounded. Henry turns her into a vampire to save her. But the vampires of this 'verse are extremely territorial. They can't live in the same city because their instincts would cause them to fight to the death to claim the territory. So Henry moves to Vancouver, taking Vicki with him temporarily, since he *can* be around her when she's a wee baby vamp because he's her teacher/mentor/parent, and taking Tony as well. After the baby vamp time is over, Vicki returns to Toronto.

In the fifth book, Vicki returns to Vancouver for a case. During this case, she and Mike stay with Henry and Tony and everyone learns why it's a Very Bad Thing for vampires to share a territory. But Vicki also shows Henry that it's possible for vampires to override their animal instincts and that it may be possible, with some work, for vampires to share a territory. Vicki goes back to Toronto to live out Mike's lifetime with him and then hook up with Henry afterwards. (Okay, the last part isn't canon, since Mike's still alive, but it's implied.)

That's the Blood books.

“I don’t even know you guys. Why should I do what you want?” “Because we’re trying to save the world here, Kevin.” “By suppressing the truth?” “If that’s what it takes.” “And what kind of a world will that give us?” “One not strewn with dismembered bodies, you shortsighted jackass.” - Smoke and Ashes

The Smoke Trilogy

The Smoke trilogy picks up a couple of years after the last Blood book. These are Tony's stories. Henry's a featured player, but you could remove him entirely and still have pretty much the same stories. (Not that I want to, since I love the Henry/Tony stuff.) Vicki makes a couple of phone call cameos.

Smoke and Shadows: Tony, a high school dropout, has completed his GED and gone to Vancouver Film School. Now he has a job as a PA on "Darkest Night", the highest rated vampire detective show in syndication. ("We're heavily syndicated in the American market.") It's a bottom rung job, but he wants to direct movies one day and he's learning a lot on the show. He's also got a major crush on the show's co-star, Lee Nicholas. Who is, according to all evidence, entirely straight.

The show is produced by CB Productions and the CB in question is Chester Bane, the creator/executive producer for "Darkest Night." He's a large, authoritative man with several ex-wives and a vise grip on the show's budget. He refuses to spend any money that won't show up on screen and pushes the crew to cut costs wherever possible. If he picks up a gorilla suit cheap somewhere, the writers will have to find a way to work that costume into a show.

Tony suspects something weird is up when the show's Victim of the Week drops dead for real. Unlike most of the cast and crew, Tony doesn't dismiss the evidence of something strange just because it isn't possible. When Lee Nicholas gets possessed by a shadow and puts the moves on Tony, he's certain something is up. He investigates and finds out that Arra, the special effects wizard, is a literal wizard. She escaped from another dimension seven years ago after a major war in her world. Now the Shadowlord that killed her people has tracked her down. He wants to destroy her and her new world. Arra wants to get the hell out of town. She's convinced the fight is hopeless. Many wizards from her order fought him and lost. How could a single wizard hope to defeat the Shadowlord? But Tony keeps pushing her and she grudgingly helps him.

The Shadowlord figured out how to open the gate she built between her old world and here. His first move is sending out shadows to scout for him. One of these killed the guest star and another one possessed Lee. Tony and Arra fight to destroy the shadows before they can bring the Shadowlord any information. Henry helps when he can, but vampires in this world are completely unconscious from sunrise to sunset. The Shadowlord picks up this information when one of the shadows possess Tony. He takes advantage of it by doing as much as he can during daylight hours. Tony also gets memories from the shadow and gets a glimpse at Arra's world and what the Shadowlord did to the other members of her order, which makes for some nasty nightmares.

Most of the shadows aren't sent to kill, but sometimes the possession itself can cause death or permanent damage to the host. Arra mixes up a potion to help the victims recover. Since she can't get the same spell components here as she could in her homeworld, she substitutes local ingredients. The potion ends up being a magic-infused cocktail made primarily from warm vodka and catnip. Yum.

The Shadowlord finally comes through the gate himself and takes over the studio. He's fascinated by television, which is "shadows made of light." The show's star, Mason Reed, is scheduled to go on a live talk show and the Shadowlord intends to use that to send his shadows out into thousands of homes to possess people and give him an army.

Tony realizes that the Shadowlord has put all this effort into tracking Arra down not just to finish the job he started in her world, but because she has the ability to defeat him. She tries to run away, but he convinces her to return to the studio and try to fight. She has a spell that they developed back in her home world as a potential way to fight the Shadowlord, but back then, it failed. They return to face the Shadowlord and she casts the spell - one that calls up the Light of Yeramathia, the Shadowlord's opposite. The spell nearly doesn't work, but Tony, using information he got when the shadow possessed him, makes a minor adjustment to it and the spell succeeds. The Light destroys the Shadowlord.

After casting a memory-altering spell on the people at the studio, Arra decides to return to her homeworld to rebuild. She tells Tony that he has the potential to be a wizard and invites him to go with her. He refuses. But before she leaves, she gives him her laptop which she's filled with 80 gb of do-it-yourself wizardry lessons.

This is the point in canon Tony will be coming from when he arrives at Fandom High, with some adjustments to make him high school age. (See Where FH Tony is From.)

Smoke and Mirrors: In the second book, a few months later, the cast and crew of "Darkest Night" are on a location shoot at a haunted house which turns out to really be haunted. They get trapped in the house overnight while a malevolence in the house tries to get them to go insane and kill each other. Tony has been practicing wizardry, but until that night, he'd only managed to do as much as calling small objects to his hand. But this night he's forced to learn a lot of new magic in order to stay alive. He also accidentally brands himself on the left hand with a rune that allows him to physically grasp energy such as ghosts. And he outs himself to his co-workers as a wizard. Most of the cast and crew survive the night.

Smoke and Ashes: By the third book, a few months after the second, Tony's learned a few new tricks. The most powerful one is a Powershot - a blast of energy that turns demons to ash, although it also drains him badly. This spell comes in handy because there's a Demonic Convergence in town. Demons are coming through from another plane and there's a big bad behind them ready to wreak havoc and come through once he has enough minions in place. In the course of dealing with this invasion, Tony learns more about his magic and better understands the energies he's using. They defeat the Demonlord and the world does not end.

Things wrap up nicely at the end of the trilogy. There might possibly be more Tony stories in the future, but for now, it's a closed canon.


About Tony

Smoke and Shadows (Excerpt)